SHILLONG, Sep 29: A day after the High Level Committee under the chairmanship of Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong submitted its report to Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, the Harijan Panchayat Committee has expressed surprise over the submission of the report saying that such an action was violative of High Court order.
Secretary of Harijan Panchayat Committee (HPC), Gurjit Singh produced a High Court of Meghalaya order dated April 9, 2021 and claimed that the Court had direct that both the HPC and the HLC should maintain status quo in respect of Sweeper Colony/Punjabi Lane/Harijan Colony at Bara Bazar.
Singh questioned how the HLC can submit its report when the High Court had asked both the parties to maintain status quo. The Harijan body would approach the High Court restraining any precipitate action by the authorities.
“We will again have to move the High Court as HLC is doing everything on their own will,” he said while urging the state government to respect the order of the High Court.
The HPC secretary also said that the government should provide a copy of the report of the HLC to them as they are the stakeholders in the matter.
Singh also lamented that the area is being guarded by security personnel just to keep the issue alive. “Everything is normal in the Colony and the residents of the locality do go out for their work and it is not that the residents are keeping themselves confined to the Colony,” he said.
Three years after the state government constituted the High Level Committee to examine the modalities pertaining to relocation of Harijan Colony from Them Iew Mawlong, the panel finally submitted its report to the CM on Tuesday.
The HCL under the chairmanship of Tynsong was constituted on June 4, 2018 to look into the demand for relocation of Harijan Colony which gained momentum after an altercation at Iew Mawlong spiralled into a violent unrest which paralysed life in the city for weeks.
Earlier, the Shillong Municipal Board had conducted surveys in Harijan Colony and submitted an inventory to the HLC in 2019 pointing out that 184 employees and their families have been identified as legal settlers that included families of 128 employees of the municipal board and 56 others who are working in the different government departments.
